For many types of commercial art work, it is customary to use a number of photographic negative clips and to assemble these clips on an optical light table, to plan the layout; and then take the film clips to a darkroom where they are mounted in a vacuum contact frame in their proper relative position over a new sheet of film on which the composite image is to appear. A glass plate is then pivoted down over the photographic clips to hold them firmly in place over the unexposed film sheet, and vacuum pressure is supplied within the contact frame to pull the glass plate firmly down on the layers of film to press them tightly together. The film is then exposed and developed.
In the foregoing process as described above, the worker, who is known in the trade as a "stripper", normally does much of his planning work at a work station where he has a light table available and then moves to the dark room to expose the film. This means that he must have two work areas and move back and forth between the two work stations. Alternatively, if the contact frame is used by a number of different "strippers", there may be delays or inconvenience in obtaining access to the contact frame.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to avoid the inconvenience of having to move from one work station to another; and a collateral object is to form a more compact work station where the two functions are combined in a single location, thereby saving time and money.